TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Cisco Catalyst Switches vs. UniFi WiFi Access Points

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Cisco Catalyst Switches

    Score9.3 out of 10
    N/ACisco's Catalyst is one of that company's brand of network switches.N/A

    UniFi WiFi Access Points

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AUbiquiti Networks in San Jose provides the UniFi wi-fi access points. The enterprise products support 1,000+ client capacity, long-range 6 GHz performance, and 10 GbE PoE connectivity with native high availability architecture for critical enterprise environments.N/A
    Pricing
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesUniFi WiFi Access Points
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesUniFi WiFi Access Points
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesUniFi WiFi Access Points
    Considered Both Products
    Cisco
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    If I were to compare the Catalyst to the Meraki, I do feel more secure about the Catalyst, as Meraki was not originally a cisco product and was acquired. So, from the point of security and dependability, the Catalyst is a winner.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    Ubiquiti switches are easier to configure and, in my experience, just as reliable.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    I like Ubiquiti equipment a lot, they are more affordable than new Cisco, however, the old Cisco gear is so available and affordable it's hard to pass up. It has a great reseller market as well.
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    In comparison to the NETGEAR and Linksys, these are simple single VLAN switches that are not business capable. Cisco switches give you the ability to separate segments as well as true single-port speed, no sharing. In comparison to Aruba, Aruba just recently got into the PoE …
    Incentivized
    Chose Cisco Catalyst Switches
    Cisco Catalyst Switches have offered better reliability, support and customization when compared to Ubiquiti networks. While Ubiquiti is cheaper, it required proprietary knowledge and training that was difficult to locate within the region. Engineers ended up having to get …
    Incentivized
    Ubiquiti Networks
    Chose UniFi WiFi Access Points
    Ubiquiti is much more user friendly than the Cisco products we considered using, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Cisco is top of the line and one of, if not the industry standard. However, for a small church organization with minimal experienced staff when it comes to …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    493 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    97%
    Delivers good value for the price
    439 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    494 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    98%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    407 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    98%
    Implementation went as expected
    470 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Best Alternatives
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesUniFi WiFi Access Points
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    WatchGuard Secure Wi-Fi Cloud
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Cisco Aironet 1800 Series Access Points (discontinued)
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cisco Catalyst 8000 Edge Platforms
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Cisco Meraki MR Wireless Access Points
    Score9.1 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesUniFi WiFi Access Points
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.2
    (625 ratings)
    9.0
    (39 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    10.0
    (31 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.5
    (32 ratings)
    9.0
    (4 ratings)
    Availability
    9.2
    (9 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    10.0
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.8
    (30 ratings)
    6.9
    (6 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    7.1
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    7.3
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.4
    (8 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    9.7
    (7 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    9.2
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    10.0
    (9 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    8.6
    (30 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.9
    (31 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    Cisco Catalyst SwitchesUniFi WiFi Access Points
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Cisco
    I think the most suited ones will be of course, for example, a supermarket where you have more than 50 plus devices because there are like 48 ports in a switch. We can just use a lot of devices and connect them to it. A less use case will be, I think it depends at the end of the day how your topology looks like. If you have a very few devices, you shouldn't be going for these catalyst switches because they are of course much bigger, more processing power and all those things. If you have, again, it comes to topology. If you have the number of users who are using these switches is less than 15, it's less than 15, then you can just go for any other option and not use them.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    I love the equipment for small-scale commercial solutions and quality without the price tag. I might not recommend their products for a large organization with multiple locations and servers. However, the GUI interface will allow remote access and setup across the network. I think this is a great solution for small businesses and families or home office solutions, provided there is some IT knowledge for setup and maintenance.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Cisco
    • One of the things that it does well, it's not something major, but there's a light tracking feature that the 9300 comes with that you can turn on the light and that has become critical in a data center environment where you want to help someone to make sure that you're talking about the same switch, you can turn the light on and off something that is not available in other versions of Cisco switches before the 9300. So it's not as major, but it's quite critical when you're dealing with multiple systems and multiple switches.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    • Ubiquti WLAN is very easy on setup for fast deployment.
    • The monitoring software is offered at different level. Cloudkey, or just throwing up their free controller on a PC somewhere.
    • It also does a great job of publishing timely updates to firmware, and addressing bug issues.
    • The ease of the interface, without adding a bunch of fluff, makes this literally the best out there in my opinion.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Cisco
    • Functionality. Well, one of the functions that we are missing is a faster route based on OSPF. Other than that, it could provide an upgrade without a hitless upgrade. Well, now it is a very fast upgrade, which is also okay. We had a case when the platform crashed, but that was a specific case. We were happy with this product.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    • Initial configuration of access points can be rather tricky. Each one I have installed was a complete pain to get setup and connected with the UniFi Controller software. I never worked out what causes me problems, but thankfully once I've stumbled through the correct procedure, it does work completely reliably after that, for years on end.
    • The UniFi Controller software will nag you to share usage data. When offered to opt-in, I choose not to do so, but you'll eventually be nagged again on a future login.
    • Some of the 'tooltips' within the Controller software could be more informative.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Cisco
    They are consistently reliable and this switch in particular is a very affordable solution. We can place the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series Switches gear in areas that we normally would not place a switch because it is affordable enough to make it justifiable. And because it is a reliable solution, we are confident it will continue to provide service over the long haul.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Cisco
    Cisco by and far does a great job with the Catalyst line. From a layer 2 dumb switch all the way up to ISP carrier grade switching within the Catalyst portfolio. The best part about it is command parity among the various tiers of product. The only differences are going to lie in what features are available per switch.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    Ubiquiti makes great Access points at various tiers provided far better coverage and throughput than consumer-grade wireless repeaters and routers. We have not had any performance complaints from guests or from the administration who use the wifi on a daily basis.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Cisco
    We have very few is any outages due to a Cisco hardware failure. Some of our gear is exposed to some pretty harsh environments, and they keep on ticking!
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Cisco
    No, the packets flow. Sometimes you will see collisions and broadcast storms can happen which will slow performance but that can be fixed and the packets will flow.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Cisco
    We rarely have issues with the product. I have only had to contact support one time since we put it in and that was to see if another vendor was giving me accurate information on an issue I was having.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    Ubiquiti support is minimal, which is said to help decrease the cost of the equipment. However, with many reports of emails going directly to the Ubiquiti support line taking days to hear a response, you're better off either engaging with the community forums for help from fellow UniFi users or reaching out to a reseller that has training on the equipment that can assist.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Cisco
    Cisco Networking Academy partners with many local Colleges and High Schools to provide great hands-on training. You do need to drive to learn the topic. The in-class session only go so far. You really need to apply this to the real world. Cisco makes it easy for business to connect via CLC or Cisco Learning Credits.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Online Training
    Cisco
    My own personal research to get the information I want is very handy and helped me many times
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation Rating
    Cisco
    The implementation of the Cisco Catalyst 1000 Series Switches is fairly seamless, especially if you are familiar with Cisco products. We have had Brocade switch gear in place too, and the differences between the manufacturers [are] not a major issue.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Cisco
    We do have other vendors. For example, Juniper, Fortinet, and there are quite a few others. And Cisco is pretty good because we know the workflow, we know how the operating system works. We are much more familiar with Cisco products and we know the support system behind it. So in terms of comparing with others, I think it stands out. It's one of our top products to go to
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    Ubiquiti is overall easier to work with. There is no special training needed to accomplish many of the things required with a Cisco product. Since my time is stretched thin, I need something that I can manage without being weighed down by command-line communications. Also, I am able to use my wireless devices to maintain every Ubiquiti device on my network.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Cisco
    We are exclusive Cisco at our organization. In truth part of the reason is, with one type of switch and one manufacturer, it is easier to support. It is also easier to give consistent training to our staff in our tech department
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Cisco
    • energy costs dropped by around 11 per cent on the access layer
    • management has become easier with DNA Center
    • ISSU software upgrades and fabric deployments have significantly reduced "planned" down times
    • network speed has increased, latency is at an all-time best within our own LAN
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Ubiquiti Networks
    • Can't say it enough, prices are awesome, so ROI is very high IMHO.
    • Remote cloud management allows me to service more clients at greater distances.
    • Project estimates become much more attractive when you can show the savings vs more expensive solutions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Cisco Catalyst Switches Screenshots

    Product screenshotScreenshot of Catalyst 9200 SeriesScreenshot of Catalyst 9300 SeriesScreenshot of Catalyst 9400 SeriesScreenshot of Catalyst 9400 Series Additional ViewScreenshot of Catalyst 9500 Series